Supplementary memorandum

CBPS 43A

MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY CAMPAIGN POSITION ON WAITING TIMES STATISTICS

The lack of publicly available statistics for the waiting times of Welsh patients in England and English patients in Wales means that problems in this area of service provision are not properly identified and addressed. It is not clear whether the data is being formally collated, but it is certainly not revealed to the public and is kept separate from the data for waiting times of patients within the same country.

It seems from the Department of Health Protocol (cited as Appendix 3 of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign's Written Evidence) that the Healthcare Commission has explicitly approved a procedure which allows Secondary Care Service Providers to withhold vital information relating to cross-border waiting times. The management of the performance ratings of Trusts and LHBs in England and Wales is therefore deemed to be more important than identifying issues requiring urgent attention concerning waiting times.

Publishing these statistics is necessary to contribute to the improvement in cross-border health services through highlighting the problems.

June 2008